About
Phil is a recent Graphic Design graduate who is now trying to kick start his career. He blogs and designs over at Electric Weekend and is in the middle of changing everything at Virb to make it all a bit nicer and more like him.
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FebruaryFeb 7 Saturday Sat 09
CSS Animation In
Although I have a limited ability when it comes to creating websites, advancements like CSS Animation always interest and excite me. I'm quite anti-flash so when I see things like this1 made with HTML and CSS it's kind of confirmation that people need to think seriously about how Flash is used. No full Flash websites please.
FebruaryFeb 4 Wednesday Wed 09
BBC Radio in
An excellent download that brings BBC Radio into iTunes. It includes all the main national stations, but sadly doesn't include an local radio stations. I wish there was away of getting BBC Radio Nottingham into iTunes so I don't have to sit upstairs on my iMac to listen to Forest commentary.
It works in the UK and I think people have mixed success with some stations outside of the UK.
(Via Iconaholic.)
FebruaryFeb 2 Monday Mon 09
Tumblr Theme
I'm not a big Tumblr user, but I do find the designs people come up with for displaying the different types of content quite interesting. The Tumblr Theme Garden looks like a great resource for showcasing all those different ideas and designs.
(Via Khoi.)
JanuaryJan 26 Monday Mon 09
FlickrRSS
A nice fix for the FlickrRSS plugin if, like mine, yours suddenly stops displaying images.
Click To
A great little plugin for Safari. Clicktoflash, which is an actual plugin not an Input Manager, displays all flash elements on a page as a simple gradient for you to click and laod the flash item. I've tested it on a site I visit daily that gets very bogged down because of a flash video item and it works superbly.
(Via Tim Van Damme.)
Slight
I've just put the finishing touches to a slight realign here on the blog. It's something I've been meaning to do for some time but never quite got around to it.
I've kept the same basic look and feel around the place but made some better use of space and added a few usability alterations. The body copy is now slightly larger so hopefully a bit easier to read1. Gone is the left margin which contained the meta data for the main posts making for a wider reading area and a less wonky look when a link post is at the top of the page.
I've revised the header section as well. Navigation now finds itself at the very top of the page and the search box has moved from the footer to the top right. Hopefully this will make the search more obvious and useful to people. I've also fixed my Twitter stream, which seemed to have stopped working, and it now finds a new position below my logo and just above the posts. There's a bit of border-radius action involved on the search and Twitter sections so those of you with Safari 3 or FF3 will be able to enjoy some nice finishing touches.
Everything has now lost the horrible background hover. I'm not sure what came over me when I decided to add that, but links are now both more subtle and natural to find.
Those of you with Helvetica Neue will notice some nice touches with the meta data on all the posts. I've employed a little Ultra Light and I think it adds a nice touch. I like to reward those of us on the Mac a little.
Disclaimer. I've not checked this in Internet Explorer, but aside from the border-radius I can't think of much that won't work properly. Having said that please drop me an email if you see anything totally horrible.
- I've had a few comments about the light text on dark being hard to read on some monitors. I'm thinking of working up a light version of the site and providing a theme switcher. ?
JanuaryJan 19 Monday Mon 09
The T-Mobile
Got to work this morning and found this sitting in my inbox. An ingenious piece of advertising. Wonder what it was like being there and seeing it.
Frozen Grand
The previous video sparked a discussion about cool things in large scale public places. This video of Grand Central cropped up. It's not advertising but it's still very cool.
JanuaryJan 15 Thursday Thu 09
The 2009
A very creative and unique way to launch the new 2009 Formula 1 car by Toyota.
(Via Khaled.)
JanuaryJan 14 Wednesday Wed 09
Google Quick Search
Google launched a new toy today. The Quick Search Box looks good so far and the lead developer is the guy who was/is behind the magical QuickSilver so I have high hopes for it.
I had to wait til I got home to try it, but it's worked well for me. No crashes to report as yet, but I've only been running it for a few minutes. I like the appearance as well, but I hope they add a second or third pane ala QuickSilver.
JanuaryJan 9 Friday Fri 09
More Dropbox
Chris Bowler has another great article about Dropbox. He covers a way of using Dropbox I've been looking at, mainly as a way of gathering images. My only problem is that Dropbox doesn't currently sync Spotlight comments to Macs that didn't apply them. Still his article covers multiple ways to use Dropbox and gives more deserved coverage to this superb utility.
Hicksdesign FontExplorer
Jon Hicks goes through his design process for the iconography Linotype's new FontExplorer X.
JanuaryJan 4 Sunday Sun 09
Two Mac Nightmare: Email &
If you've only just found this series of posts exploring how I keep my two Macs in sync you might want to look at the introduction of the series to help set the scene. In this post I want to explore the issue of keeping emails and contacts in sync.
Now I'm sure the majority of you are aware of the a well known protocol to help with this issue. The Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP, as it's more commonly known, allows you to access your email through a web interface or a desktop email client and have the data appear identically in all places. Deleting an email on your desktop will mean the email is deleted on your laptop as well as on the web interface. In essence it provides everything you need to keep your mail in sync across multiple devices.
For my email I use the same Google Apps account that I use for my calendar syncing. I've found gMail to be extremely effective in solving the problem many people deal with regarding email. It enables me to have a central hub for all my email addresses. I currently have 3 emails addresses forwarding to my gApps account meaning that I effectively have a desktop client on the web, I'm able to view incoming mail and reply/send using which ever address I want. This setup mirrors my Mail.app on both my Macs adding the consistency I require. Any rules that I want to apply to me email are applied in gMail and so are the same in all locations, meaning I don't have to set up the same rules on my Macs, it's all done for me.
Now initially gMail's IMAP implementation was not very well thought through, fortunately that was fixed with the addition of a gMail Labs item called Advanced IMAP. This allows very useful fine grained control of which labels appear as folders in Mail.app, you can turn off all mail boxes with the exception of the inbox if you so wish. Most importantly it means I can turn off gMail's "All Mail" folder and in the process eliminate all the duplicate emails that appear in Spotlight searches within Mail.app.
At this point I'd like to take the opportunity to explain why MobileMe is not suitable for me1. I have many email addresses which I send mail from, on the Mac using Mail.app this works perfectly I can send email using any of the addresses I've set up. Unfortunately this is not the case for MobileMe. Whilst you can use email aliases they always end with @me.com and you can not use a custom domain. This is pretty much a deal breaker for me. I can't justify paying for a service in which I won't use one of the key features and whilst I could use gMail for my email needs and MobileMe for my other items it just doesn't work in my mind. Integration of Web Apps is just as important to me as integration of desktop apps. The whole reason I use Mail/Address Book/iCal is because of their integration, and the idea of having to go to separate sites for different services would in my mind be like using other non-standard software on my Macs. I like everything to be as connected as it can be.
Now unfortunately this leads me to the bane of my synchronisation nightmares. Contacts. For a while I had some syncing of my contacts between Macs using the Yahoo sync built into Leopard's Address Book, but this didn't fit with my integrated Web Apps and excluded some fields that I put to use.
I need a sync with gMail. So when Apple added the ability to sync Address Book with gMail I was pleasantly surprised. That was until I discovered I needed to sync my iPod touch through iTunes. I don't plug my iPod into my iMac very often so this presented another unsatisfactory "solution". I went in search of other methods and found Syncman a small app being developed to provide syncing of Address Book with gMail. Sadly it too lacked the control I wanted, and on closer inspection I found it hasn't been updated for several months. Again another unsatisfactory solution.
All of this seems rather odd. We have a very good, widely used protocol for keeping our email in sync across multiple clients but no way of keeping our contacts in sync. I find it hard to understand why there is not a protocol that works hand in hand with IMAP to provide this. Both sets of data are so heavily reliant on the other it seems illogical that there isn't a widely available method of keeping everything in sync. Whilst I could get a working solution in MobileMe, because of it's email shortfalls I wouldn't be in better position than I am now. I'm left frustrated, along with many others, with my hopes resting on the guys at BusyMac to provide a solution. I'm told they are developing a new version of BusySync which brings Address Book sync, hopefully it will come soon and be just as effective as their calendar sync.
- In my opening post a footnote highlighted that MobileMe wasn't suitable for me so I'd like to answer that here.?
DecemberDec 26 Friday Fri 08
What is Your Creative
An excellent message from Jonathan Pike about the reasons he creates.
We can all, as Christians, be guilty of trying to do things for our own merit and it's important to stop, take note and realise that as Christians it should be God we are doing it for. In our hearts it should be Him we are giving the credit to as without Him wouldn't be able to do any of it.
DecemberDec 16 Tuesday Tue 08
Obama Logos That Didn't Make
I just found this one in my inbox. Some of the Obama logo ideas that weren't chosen, as well as the origin of the logo that was chosen.
I really like looking at other ideas that were rejected and why they were rejected. I wish more people were able to present ideas in this manner.
(Via some one, don't remember who. Sorry.)
Grid
An excellent web utility to help you generate a gridfor your website. Looks rather useful.
(Via Dan Benjamin.)
The Two Mac Nightmare:
When I introduced this series of posts, I highlighted the main areas I wanted to keep in sync between my Macs and a web interface for use at work. This post aims to introduce you to the method I use to keep my calendar in sync across the three areas.
On both my Macs I use iCal to keep things organised. On the web I have a Google Apps For Your Domain (GAFYD) account setup which includes a very nice calendar that mirrors iCal nicely. In my quest to find a syncing method I've tried many different routes but always felt that the combination of iCal and gCal was the way forward and there are quite a few tools available to enable this.
The Tools
The first tool that came available was of course the first tool I tried. It's also probably the most well known, and goes by the name of Spanning Sync. It installs via a preference pane which enables you to configure it with your Google account and enable fully fledged bi-directional sync. I used it when it was in beta and for the free trial period once it was fully released, but something about it didn't quite feel right to me.
I'm already trusting a 3rd party with my calendar information by enabling this sync, what I didn't like about Spanning Sync was the fact it didn't speak directly to Google. Everything was passed through the Spanning sync servers. I didn't want yet another 3rd party server holding my information, and adding an extra step in the sync meant, at least in my eyes, adding another thing that could break. However, this wasn't the only reason I didn't like Spanning Sync. I didn't like the pricing method they were using. A subscription basis didn't sit right with me, especially at the price they were asking. $65 for a lifetime or $25 for a year. That felt expensive and turned me away in the search of another solution.
Fortunately for me this was at a time when a second option was just entering the market in a beta. gSync1 had become available and unlike Spanning Sync it spoke directly with Google and was not subscription based.
As with Spanning sync I tested it for the beta period and the free trial, but again I was left wanting. Whilst the utility seemed to work there were always a few hiccoughs with the sync. It didn't always work and a couple of times I was left to restore from backups and spend time on Google sorting out broken calendars with surplus events. Not really the ideal solution. I quickly grew tired of this and gave up for several months, relying on one copy of iCal and my memory.
Just as I was beginning to get fed up and have ago at the all elusive sync, a new utility arrived on the market in the form of BusySync. At the time it was only able to sync between 2 Macs on a local network (LAN), but I still gave it ago. It worked very well. I was able to set my iMac up as my "server" and have it sync my iBook flawlessly. I was very impressed, but still a little reluctant to commit as the web interface I needed was still eluding me.
Thankfully only a few months after launch BusySync 2.0 was released and with it the ability to sync with a Google Calendar. I tried it again, and once again I was impressed. The same ease of use that was in version 1.0's sync over LAN was present with 2.0's sync to Google. A simple case of checking the right boxes after inputting my login details. Still I wasn't sold instantly but after the 30 day trial ended I coughed up for a license.
The Setup
Initially I had my iMac setup, as before, as my "server". It was publishing my calendars for my iBook to subscribe to as well as publishing them to my Google calendar. For a while this seemed to be working, but then I hit a few roadblocks. I wasn't turning my iMac on as often as I needed, as a result I wasn't getting identical sets of information on Google and my iBook. Things were getting a bit out of sync. I changed the way I was handling things so that my iBook was subscribed to my Google calendar which was in turn subscribed to my iMacs calendars.
This worked, everything was staying in sync and identical. But it didn't feel right to me. It didn't feel like I had a central point which acted as the "master" so I changed things again. This time exporting my calendars from my iMac and importing them into my Google Calendar. Then using BusySync I subscribed to the calendars from Google on my iMac and on my iBook. This was it. It felt right. It felt like a "cloud" and my calendars remained in sync no matter what I did. Whether I was at work adding an event on my iBook adding an event or on my iMac adding an event. Everything came and went very nicely.
How does it work?
Stunningly, but that's not what you want to know. BusySync uses technology built into Mac OS X called Sync Services. As I understand it that technology presents BusySync with the calendar data the moment you complete entering it, and BusySync pushes it to Google. That means usually within a minute of making a change in iCal it is reflected on Google. Unfortunately the other direction doesn't quite work the same way. Getting events from Google is still a pull system, checking at a specified intervals for new events and changes. However, setting it to check every minute pretty much enables the same feeling, and events feel like they appear almost instantly2. It can't get much better than that!
Please stay tuned for the next two installments of my series on keeping two Macs in sync. I'll be tackling emails and contacts as well as those few important files you need in multiple places.
- After I'd written the main body of this post I couldn't find a link to gSync. It was created by a company called Macness but their website no longer seems to be alive. I guess the project died.?
- I have this setup on both my iMac and iBook. As the battery on my iBook is foobar'd and I have it permanently plugged in I don't know how this would impact battery life.?
DecemberDec 5 Friday Fri 08
The Two Mac Nightmare:
For the last couple of years I've been wrestling with the age old problem of having two Macs, a desktop and a laptop. Whilst it's nice to have the luxury of two Macs it's always presented an issue that I'm only now beginning to find a solution for. The age old problem of keeping the two machines in sync.
Like many people I've gone down the route of pursuing that perfect solution and come up short. I've always been left with that feeling that my Macs are kind of there, they're kind of synced but not quite. It's always felt a little skew-whiff.
Now there's probably many answers to why, most likely beginning with my lack of desire to commit to any one method. I'm sure many of you who are in the same boat have gone down the same stream I did. Trying every new "solution" that presented itself, not to mention numerous attempts at finding a quick manual sync workflow. I tried many different services or apps, but each time they felt clunky and came up short.
It wasn't until I started working1 that the true problem came to light. I had always been pursuing this nirvana of my two Macs in perfect sync without nailing down just what it was that needed syncing. When I started work it was made instantly clear what it was that I needed syncing, for the first time I was able to nail down just what I needed to be the same on my two machines.
- Calendars -- In this case iCal on my iMac and iBook.
- Email -- This one was pretty easy, there's a rather well known protocol that deals with this.
- Contacts -- Address Book on my two Macs.
- Some files -- Not everything but a select group that changes on a regular basis as well as a few constants.
But I also had a new problem. It wasn't just the two machines that I needed to keep in harmony. I now had a third access point, my work Mac, that I wanted to be able to access my data on but didn't really want to have synchronised in the same way. The ideal solution was a web interface that stayed in sync with my two Macs at home2. An added twist that seems to complicate the issue a little further. Or does it? Since the sync has to involve a "cloud" of some sort, it makes a lot of sense to seek out a solution that involved a web interface as a natural solution.
Anyway, now I've explained the issue I've been faced with I guess it's time to introduce the series this post is beginning. I'm aiming to go through the tools I now use to "solve" the problem I've just outlined. I"ll tackle each individual item in a post of their own, with email and contacts in a combined post3, that will hopefully provide people in a similar position with an effective solution.
- I was a student at the beginning of this issue so it was never imperative that the two Macs were "in sync"?
- At this point people usually suggest Apple's MobileMe but for various reasons, largely with email it's not suitable for me. I'll tackle this more in the email post that's to come.?
- The two go so well together it's hard separate as well as to understand why there is no open protocol for contact sync in the same style as IMAP. ?
NovemberNov 23 Sunday Sun 08
The 'O' in
The 'O' in Obama an interesting interview with the guy who created the initial logo for Obama's '08 campaign. Fascinating to see that Obama had very little input into the process as well as the demonstration of networking to land the job.